Frozen Flatlands Part Deux

I have to say I breathed a little sigh of relief to see that some of the sketchier pack riders from the Saturday race were not at Sunday's crit at Spokane Raceways. The weather was a tad cooler and cloudier, but still a nice day.

When I sent my race report to the team I thought we had about 20 gals out there, again mostly Cat 4s, but I guess looking at the results sheet it was more like 12. Am I that bad at counting? I swear we had more than that. The 60-min crit went by much faster than I expected.

The first lap was pretty fast and this is the first time since late last year I've done any tight cornering at speed so the first time through the S-curves was a little dicey for me. I was on the brakes a bit too much and had to work a little harder than I would have liked to stay with the pack. After a few laps I started trusting the bike, laid off the brakes, and did just fine. For the first half of the race I was hanging onto the back of the pack and just couldn't find anywhere to move up. I didn't want to risk getting into the wind and getting popped too early, so I just sat back and made sure to keep right on a wheel.

At the midway point the officials threw in a prime, which finally shook things up. The Cat 3 rider that won it took it as an opportunity to launch an attack and kept motoring right through the finish. She took 3 other gals with her and even though I had finally moved up, I didn't quite have the acceleration to match them so I fell back with a 6-person chase group. The girl in front of me was very sketchy so I kept trying to find a way to get around her without expending a ton of energy. Luckily after a few more laps she started having a hard time keeping on a wheel so I moved up and around her and that was the last I saw her. The 5 of us continued but never caught up to the breakaway.

The headwind was very strong on the finishing stretch and I was so worried about getting out into the wind too early on the sprint that I waited a tad too long and ended up doing nothing. I crossed the line in 5th place but I'm fairly certain if I had just gone for it I probably could have taken 3rd place, which would have launched me to 3rd in GC. The other two girls had been up front for way too long and I was sitting on their wheels so I should have had the advantage. Last year at PR it took me a few races to actually get the sprint right. For some reason I tend to worry about going too soon and I don't trust my abilities. I sit back and wait and then run out of time and get pissed off for days afterwards because I didn't sprint. If I give it my all and don't get it...that's one thing. But I hate to look back and think, "Gee...if only I had gone for it!" The couple of times I completely committed to the sprint at PR I did great...so I just need to figure out why I keep having this issue. Maybe it's just a lack of confidence thing, which really isn't my style. C'mon girl!

I'm certainly happy with my results though. I got 8th in the RR, 5th in the crit, and 6th in GC. Not too bad! It took me all of last season to get my first top ten finish, so getting a few early in the season is nice, even if the fields are smaller. I need to keep gaining fitness and work on my acceleration, sprinting, and general technique. I just hooked up with a kick-ass new coach...so look out!